


You Got Someplace to Go

by fangirl_in_a_trenchcoat



Series: The Phantom Chronicles [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV), The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Julian is everyone's father figure by this point, Panic Attacks, Reggie Peters Has Bad Parents (Julie and The Phantoms), Shadowhunter AU, and we love him for it, the boys are 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28302333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_in_a_trenchcoat/pseuds/fangirl_in_a_trenchcoat
Summary: He'd been lying on his bed, quietly staring at the ceiling, waiting for the shouting to stop. And it did for a while, until it started again a few minutes later and Reggie had suddenly decided that he was going to the Institute. It wasn't even that he was tired and wanted to sleep, despite it being way past midnight, but the Institute would at least be quiet.Which was funny really if you thought about it because the LA Institute was the least quiet place he knew.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Reggie Peters & Julian Blackthorn
Series: The Phantom Chronicles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2079396
Comments: 1
Kudos: 47





	You Got Someplace to Go

**Author's Note:**

> I am apparently writing jatp shadowhunter AUs now XD But really though, I suddenly had so many ideas so I'm determined to write them down! (we'll see how that goes :p)  
> I'm turning this into a series so all of them are in the same universe in different times.

Reggie wasn't exactly sure why he'd reached his breaking point.

It wasn't like anything different had happened. Things weren't worse (and they definitely weren't better), so he wasn't exactly sure why he'd opened up his window and jumped outside. His room was on the first floor, which didn't really make it even remotely dangerous, especially considering what they'd done during training and the few missions they'd been assigned.

He'd been lying on his bed, quietly staring at the ceiling, waiting for the shouting to stop. And it did for a while, until it started again a few minutes later and Reggie had suddenly decided that he was going to the Institute. It wasn't even that he was tired and wanted to sleep, despite it being way past midnight, but the Institute would at least be quiet.

Which was funny really if you thought about it because the LA Institute was the least quiet place he knew. 

But there was noise and then there was _noise_.

The moment his feet had touched the ground, he'd started running. There weren't that many people around, but he'd glamoured himself either way as he ran. Almost as if running away from something. Well, maybe in a sense he was.

His house was close to the Institute, but it was still a twenty minute walk. He wasn't sure how long it took him to run there, he wasn't even thinking about where he was going, he trusted muscle memory enough to get him there.

He was suddenly pushing through the Institute gates, having no idea what he was going to say when they asked him why he'd run there in the middle of the night. He wasn't even fully sure himself, nothing had changed.

He was too busy being stuck in his own head, he didn't even noticed he wasn't alone on top of the steps until he heard his name being called.

"Reggie? What happened? Are you okay?"

He stopped, breathing heavily. He turned to look at Julian almost confused. It was Julian, of course he was there, Julian was always somewhere around the Institute.

"What happened?" he asked again as he came closer, his voice softer this time. And Julian knew some stuff about Reggie's family, he probably knew more than Reggie had said, but he'd never made Reggie talk. He'd been trying to help though. Letting Reggie stay in the Institute more than usual, coming up with believable excuses. Sure his parents' marriage was crumbling, but they would never want that information to get out and they wouldn't hesitate to pull Reggie back if they knew that Julian - as well as Emma and most of the Blackthorns to be honest - knew exactly why he was spending as much time as he could with them.

"I," Reggie started to say, but he didn't know where he was going with it. He didn't even know why he'd run away. Nothing had changed.

_Nothing had changed._

Reggie gasped and fell into Julian, hugging him. Julian of course didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around him too, holding him tight.

"Reg, I promise you I can find a reason for you to move in here," he said.

"I-I can't," Reggie said sniffling against Julian's shirt. "I mean it's not like they're bad people, they don't shout at me, they mostly leave me alone." Then again Reggie would give anything to spend just one day of quality time with them.

"That's not what good parents do," Julian said. And yeah he was probably right, he definitely had more experience with parenting than Reggie did, but how could he just renounce his parents?

"I can't stay here permanently," Reggie said, "my parents wouldn't want to ruin the semblance of a typical Shadowhunter family."

"Typical Shadowhunter families are overrated," Julian said making him breathe a laugh. "And just..." Julian pulled back a little with a sigh to look at him. "Just because your parents' marriage didn't work out, they shouldn't let it affect you like this."

"They weren't always like that," Reggie said quietly. There was a time when things were quiet. He could barely remember it now...

"I know," he said, "but when you have a child, you always put them first. If they're not happy with each other they don't have to stay together, divorces are not illegal."

"And tarnish the Lovelace name like that? Unacceptable," Reggie said with a snort. If they could just get their shit together... They tried the marriage thing, it didn't work, why did they have to force it? "I... I don't know why I came here, I shouldn't-"

"What, hey," Julian cut him off, Reggie looking up at him again. "Promise me you'll never just suck it up and stay at your house miserable when you can come here."

"Julian-"

"Reggie."

It was weird how Julian had that commanding tone in his voice even though he really wasn't that much older than everyone else. And maybe it made sense at twenty, but when Julian had been his age he'd already been raising five kids for two years. Reggie felt like he could barely take care of himself a lot of the time. 

"Okay," Reggie said. He trusted that Julian could keep coming up with excuses for him to stay over and what was four more years until he turned eighteen, right?

Julian gave him an encouraging smile. "Luke and Alex are in the music room," he said, "please try not to wake everyone up."

"You soundproofed the whole room."

"Luke keeps leaving the door open," Julian said with a sigh that made Reggie almost smile. He liked talking to Julian, but he still felt awful. And he couldn't point out what it was that was different today. Nothing had changed.

Reggie walked inside the Institute and headed for the music room. Alex had been staying there for the past week while his parents were in Alicante for business, which honestly sounded like a great deal.

He found the door closed - good start - and was met with loud noise the second he opened it. The _good_ kind of noise.

He quickly closed it behind him because it was still incredibly late and both boys looked up from their respective instruments.

"Reggie!" Luke said, always excited to see any of them at any point during the day.

"Are you okay?" Alex - more grounded than the two of them - asked as he stood up from behind the drums and came closer.

"I... no, not really," he said as he sat down on the piano bench. It was a shame, no one knew how to play and no one had cared to learn. The four of them had found their callings elsewhere.

"What happened?" Luke asked letting his guitar down and walking over to sit beside him on the bench.

Reggie wasn't exactly sure what it was. Maybe it was the fact that Julian had tried to find a way to help him and made him promise that he would come over to the Institute whenever he didn't feel well. Maybe it was the fact that Luke had been so excited to see him even if it was the middle of the night and he wasn't supposed to even be there. Maybe it was the fact that Alex had instinctively moved closer to him the second he'd walked in, asking him if he was okay.

Maybe it was the fact that he'd been in the Institute for five minutes and he already felt more at home than he'd felt in his own house this past week.

He just knew that he bursted out crying.

"What? No, hey," Luke said softly as he wrapped his arm around Reggie, rubbing his hand up and down his arm. "What's wrong, Reg?"

And Reggie wanted to answer, he really did, but he didn't know what to say. He didn't know why it'd been today of all days that he'd decided he didn't want to do this tonight. Or any night. God, he just... He didn't want to do this anymore. Because no matter how much time passed, _nothing changed_.

 _Nothing changed_.

Shit, this was going to be his life for the next four years, wasn't it?

His breath suddenly hitched in his throat just as he felt his heartbeat pick up. His hands were shaking and he wished he could somehow bury himself in Luke's side to just stop the panic from taking over. Because there was nothing else he could do really, this was what he was going to have to deal with until he could just leave and be free and not have to abandon his home to get a minute of quiet, peaceful time through his day. 

He barely registered Alex who kneeled in front of him and took hold of both his hands, the pressure bringing him back, making him focus on the people around him.

"Hey," he said softly, giving him a smile. "Breathe with me."

"I," Reggie started to say because he was breathing fine, well maybe it was a bit shallower than usual, but other than his heart trying to burst out of his chest and the feeling of impending doom about his future, he was fine.

"It's okay," Alex said, somehow keeping his voice level, "just breathe."

Reggie looked at him and tried to follow Alex's breathing. He was leaning into Luke who still hadn't let him go and he could feel him taking deep breaths too even if there was no need. He was doing it for him and Reggie was definitely thankful even if he couldn't exactly articulate it now.

He tried to bring his hearbeat back down, taking deep breaths. He focused on Luke's rising and falling frame, on Alex's hands in his and tried to calm down.

Once his chest didn't feel as tight and he couldn't feel the panic clawing in his throat, he closed his eyes with a sigh, leaning his head on Luke's shoulder. "It wasn't anything new," he said dejectedly. "I don't know... It wasn't anything new, it wasn't serious."

"Reg, you don't have to act like it's not bothering you," Alex said, his thumb going over his hand, "this is not okay."

"Well, no, but I'm fine..." Reggie said, opening his eyes.

"Reggie, you came here in the middle of the night..." Luke said.

"And you were having a panic attack two seconds ago..." Alex added.

"That was a panic attack?" Reggie asked, raising his head. He knew Alex got them even though he'd never actually seen it. He wasn't sure he wanted to.

"Yeah," Alex said with a nod.

"This is how you feel?"

"I mean... sometimes. Sometimes it's milder, sometimes it's worse."

"It gets worse?" Reggie asked incredulously.

"This is not about me, Reg," Alex said softly.

Reggie sighed. "There's nothing I can do. I can't just move in here, my parents won't let it happen."

"Julian can find a way," Luke said, his faith on his brother never wavering.

"That's what he said, but it's not... It's more complicated than that," Reggie said suddenly really tired from the whole emotional rollercoaster he'd been through in the past few minutes.

"You're staying here tonight, right?" Luke asked.

"I shouldn't," Reggie said with a sigh as he closed his eyes again.

"You have to!" Luke said with a smile. "Alex and I sounded amazing before, you have to join in." Reggie looked up at him with a smile at the change in subject. He just needed a distraction from everything.

"I think amazing is a strong word," Alex said.

"A strong true word," Luke insisted.

"Okay," Alex said quietly shaking his head. "I'm not sleeping at 3 am again three nights in a row if there's not a good enough reason."

"There is a good enough reason!"

"When I say a good enough reason I mean like demons roaming the Institute," Alex deadpaned. "Not us wanting to live the rockstar dream in our free time."

"We should call Bobby and do this!" Luke kept going, unfazed by Alex's words.

"You can't call Bobby in the middle of the night, he's probably asleep," Reggie said.

"Well he's coming by in the morning, we should be ready, come on," he said and got up.

He grabbed Alex's drumsticks from the top of the piano where he'd left them, handing them to him. He took Reggie's bass from the corner of the room and walked back over to him. Reggie looked up, giving him a smile as he took it from his hands. Luke smiled back and grabbed his guitar from where he'd left it next to the window bench.

"Thank you," Reggie said. 

"You can thank us by blending into the melody," Luke said. "We're gonna be an actual band someday you know."

"We are?" Alex turned to look at him as he stood up.

"What are we calling ourselves?" Reggie asked at the same time.

"Yes, Bobby and I were talking about it the other day," Luke said looking at Alex, "and I don't know. We have time to figure out a name."

Reggie got up moving on Alex's right side as he sat down behind the drums. He was tired, but he wanted to do this. He _needed_ this.

"Okay, let's try _Long Weekend_ ," Luke said, "I think we're getting better at that."

Reggie passed the strap over his head, tuning his bass. It was a simple, reassuring action which usually helped to calm down his nerves. They'd all been grateful to Luke that he'd been trying to turn them into a band ever since they were eight.

"Ready?" Alex asked when the sound stopped and both Luke and Reggie nodded. Alex smiled as he brought his drumsticks up, hitting them together, counting them in.

***

Reggie blinked against the light coming in from the window just as he stirred on the window bench. He opened his eyes to find Alex and Luke on the floor beside him - he'd tried to argue with them about who got to sleep on the bench, but they wouldn't listen to him -, Alex having just woken up as well, while Luke couldn't even be bothered.

Before either of them could say anything, the door opened and Julian came in. His gaze fell on them and Reggie swore he was trying to suppress a smile.

"You know, you all have rooms here. Luke, you live here," he said.

Luke mumbled something incoherent and turned around pushing his face against the floor.

"It was late," Alex said as he sat up. "What time is it?"

"10," Julian said.

"What?" Reggie shot up wide awake. There was no way his parents hadn't woken up and noticed he was gone by now. What did he think was going to happen when he decided to crash in the Institute?

Alex turned to give him a concerned look and even Luke seemed to break through the haze of sleep and turned around to look between Reggie and Julian.

"Yeah," Julian said casual as ever, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned on the doorway. "I called your parents, Reggie, about two hours ago to apologize profusely for Luke grabbing you in the crack of dawn to come see the new weapons shipment we got."

"I'm such a bad influence," Luke said with a yawn. "You're sure you can leave me alone for three months?"

"I'm not leaving for three months," Julian said. All three boys turned to look at him confused. 

"Yes, you are," Luke insisted. "You're leaving with Emma in two days."

"You're supposed to join my parents, aren't you?" Alex asked.

"Ah, that," Julian said with a small smile. "There was a change in plans and we can't really go, we have... work. Demons and stuff..."

"Stuff?" Luke said as he sat up.

"Don't worry, we made a great suggestion for our replacements and everything's back on track," he reassured them. "You know, you have some time if you wanna go by Reggie's house now. I called Bobby too, he said he'd meet you there."

"Why?" Reggie asked confused.

"Well, you have some stuff here, but you probably have to pack a suitcase if you're going to stay in the Institute for the next three months," Julian said as if it made perfect sense. As if Reggie's head hadn't started buzzing with excitement he was scared to let show in case he'd misunderstood something.

"I'm staying here for the next three months?" he asked quietly, his voice wavering. He was not entirely convinced he wasn't still dreaming.

"With your parents' approval," Julian said with a nod.

Reggie basically ejected himself from the bench and lunged onto Julian, wrapping him in a bone crushing hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," he said, his words muffled by Julian's shoulder.

"And if we're being honest really, most Shadowhunters crash here after patrols and missions," Luke pointed out from his place on the floor.

"That's true," Julian said. "We'll make this work," he added a bit more quietly only for Reggie to hear. Reggie was so happy he thought he might start crying again.

"We should get Bobby in on it too and then we can start practising more!" Luke said excited as he stood up. "This is actually going somewhere!"

"As long as you keep the door closed, I'm gonna be in the front row on your first concert cheering you on," Julian said.

"I think we need a good, like, five years until we sound good enough to make this official," Alex said.

"I think we sound amazing," Luke said always ready to defend their imaginary band.

Reggie chuckled as he finally felt able to breathe. He had Luke and Alex and Julian and pretty much everyone in the Institute on his side. And when Julian put his mind to something, he didn't give up until he'd made it work. Much like Luke. Maybe it was a Blackthorn thing.

He smiled. He was going to be okay. They would make it work. 


End file.
